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Health Care
Our Health Care Crisis Pennsylvania, like other states, is facing a substantial health care crisis. Rising costs of health care are matched with growing numbers of people needing care. The combination makes matters difficult for states to maintain safety nets for citizens. The Commonwealth ensures care for more than 1.5 million older, disabled and low-income Pennsylvanians. State officials try to maximize the assistance from the Federal Government. Federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) approved a plan to ensure that older Pennsylvanians will continue to have access to quality nursing home care. PA's nursing home assessment plan is to provide an additional $1 billion in federal funding to Pennsylvaniaâ€™s nursing homes over the next four years. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services committed to approve a six-percent assessment on Pennsylvaniaâ€™s Medicaid managed care plans. The assessment means at least $163 million in revenue for the Commonwealth annually. It is expected to help to ensure the nearly 1.1 million people in managed care programs continue to receive quality care. PA is making an assessment on Intermediate Care Facilities for the Mentally Retarded - commonly known as ICF/MRs. This will generate $17 million in new federal funds on an annual basis that will be used to reduce the waiting list for community-based services for those with developmental disabilities. Insights * 45 million Americans who do not have health insurance. The majority are poor, though a significant percentage (17%) live in middle-class households. * Many people have grave medical conditions that are not being properly addressed, including those in wheelchairs, without limbs, in need of operations, or suffering from asthma, malnutrition, diabetes, Hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS. These people can NOT afford to pay for medical expenses out-of-pocket, and most cannot find jobs, let alone jobs that offer health insurance. * 37% of small businesses in 2004 did not offer health insurance to employees. * Planks about Health Care from Mark Rauterkus * Health Care Mandates for Big Business from NY's David Sirota * Congressman Tim Murphy on Health Care via email in April, 2006 * Health care-plank-right-to-know * A New Vision for Health Care from TheVanguard.org * Health Care-plank-John Edwards Stand with John Edwards for Universal Health Care from Feb 2007 ** Paul Krugman- Edwards Gets It Right * Health care-FAQs-Sicko Links * Health Care for Kids in PA * Student Alliance for Healthcare Reform Media * Health Care-California-News, Coverage from the NY Times about stalled Health Care program to insure all in California from September 2007 * SYMPTOM OF THE PROBLEM (Potter's Field) Ed Rendell's health-care proposal not quite a cure-all, by: Chris Potter - February 15, 2007 in the City Paper. * Health Cost Data article in the Trib from March, 2006 Candidate News * Swann backs limits on medical liability from April, 2006 Summary * Health Care-summary-MN from 2006 and Minnesota Governor's Race e-debate Blogs * http://healthcareforum.com by Dr. David Erani, A practicing endocrinologist in New York. A consultant to hospitals helping to improve the quality of diabetes care for hospitalized patients. Elsewhere * Connecting Americans to Their Health Care: Empowered Consumers, Personal Health Records and Emerging Technologies from a National conference sponsored by The Markle Foundation, Washington, D.C. given as a Keynote by Adam Bosworth, Vice President, Google Inc. on December 7, 2006. http://services.google.com/blog_resources/bosworth_healthcare.pdf